


simple life was not for us

by fallenhurricane



Series: Malec Playlist [6]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Hurt Magnus Bane, Idk what else to tag this with?, M/M, he's unconscious this whole fic sorry, kind of... aka there's a mention of blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:53:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24465262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallenhurricane/pseuds/fallenhurricane
Summary: Cat had heard Alec yelling as she helped a young Shadowhunter with a shax demon injury down the hall. She almost didn't believe it was him.The few times she had met Alec, he had been calm, rational, and logical, if a little obvious in his adoration for her friend. He had been kind to she and Madzie, babysitting when Magnus and Dot couldn’t. She had never heard this kind of panic in his voice. But when she burst into his office and saw Magnus unconscious on the floor, blood leaking from his mouth and nose, she understood.Or: Catarina's POV on Magnus's infirmary stay
Relationships: Magnus Bane & Catarina Loss, Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Series: Malec Playlist [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1757935
Comments: 5
Kudos: 111
Collections: Favorite Malec Stories





	simple life was not for us

**Author's Note:**

> Uhhh for the record I did not go watch the scene mentioned again, because.... I just kind of wanted to make stuff up. 
> 
> Also, I love Catarina. More Catarina forever please and thanks.

Let's rejoice in where there's love  
Simple life was not for us  
It never was  
It never was  
This could kill me

-Amy Stroup, "This Could Kill Me"

* * *

Catarina never told anybody her age. She barely kept track of how many centuries, decades, she’d been alive herself at this point.

What she did know was that she had known Magnus for well over 300 years by the time Alec came around.

Magnus didn’t recognize it in himself, the change that the young Shadowhunter brought about in him. He always thought that he hid his sadness well, had buried his baggage deep beneath the surface but those who knew him for any length of time, especially those who were as close to them as Cat was, could sense it. But recently, Magnus had been happy. Sure, the world was going to hell in a handbasket - the blond Shadowhunter had killed hundreds of Downworlders, even as he tried to stop Valentine; soon, Magnus was stripped of his position as the High Warlock of Brooklyn; and then after Valentine was gone, the blond shadowhunter had been controlled by Lilith (or so Magnus had told her). And of course Magnus was stressed. He was constantly sending her fire messages and texts, asking for her thoughts on various potions, serums, and spells he wanted to try, but through it all, he had Alec, and that was enough.

But then Magnus sent himself to Edom to get the power to battle Lilith. And he’d lost his magic and Cat had watched his spirits fall, his soul die. She knew Alec had tried, really tried, to help him - but there’s only so much a non-warlock could understand about this. Magic was so intrinsically tied to a warlock’s being... Cat had no clue how she would cope if she was in the same position.

Cat had heard Alec yelling as she helped a young Shadowhunter with a shax demon injury down the hall. She almost didn't believe it was him.

The few times she had met Alec, he had been calm, rational, and logical, if a little obvious in his adoration for her friend. He had been kind to she and Madzie, babysitting when Magnus and Dot couldn’t. She had never heard this kind of panic in his voice. But when she burst into his office and saw Magnus unconscious on the floor, blood leaking from his mouth and nose, she understood.

She was able to use a _guérison_ , an old French healing spell, to stabilize Magnus while they moved him to the infirmary. Alec hovered nearby, giving her space but repeating the same idea over and over: “Stay with me, Magnus. I’m right here. Stay with me.” She could hear the fear causing his voice to tremble, the terror causing his words to come out slow and rough.

When Magnus was in bed, Cat magicked his clothes away and replaced them with sweats. She magicked his hair clean and brushed. And she was about to snap her fingers once more to wash his face when Alec glanced at her, causing her to pause. “Can I?” he asked, and she nodded, snapping a pack of make up wipes into his hands instead. He nodded his thanks, and Cat smiled softly. She turned to gather some ingredients she had summoned for a healing potion and heard Alec murmur, “I’m still here, Mags. I’m not going anywhere” as he pulled the wipes open and gently dragged one over his boyfriend’s face.

Cat made the potion: she carefully stirred together the ingredients, which included vampire hair and Nephilim blood (Alec had offered his own without a beat). The potion took on a bright green hue, sparkling slightly. Healing. She ladled some of it into a bottle, knowing all the while that this was only a temporary fix. She’d only seen what happened to Magnus happen once before, nearly a century ago, when a young Warlock’s magic had been bound by the High Warlock of Madrid, and they had travelled to London to beg the High Warlock there for help.

Their body, their very soul, had rejected the gifted magic. The more they used it, the faster it had killed them. Cat sighed.

She returned to Magnus to find Alec holding his hand tightly in his. “I love you so much,” the Shadowhunter was whispering, not aware of Cat standing in the doorway. “More than anybody. I love you, Magnus.” He bent his head and kissed Magnus’s hand. “Please.”

And Magnus couldn’t see it. She knew he had never noticed the way that Alec stared at him; how he looked at the warlock like he hung the moon and the sun and every star in the sky. And she knew that Magnus couldn’t tell how much he’d changed himself. He was no longer the man who’d stood on that bridge so long ago (and how Cat regretted, even now, that she hadn’t been there that night, hadn’t found Magnus and hugged him tight). It was like he knew how to share, now — how to share the burdens that he carried, to let Alec (and Cat, sometimes, to another degree) help him bear their heavy weights. It was like he knew how to love.

Cat knocked on the door. Alec turned as she made her way over. “This potion should heal him enough that he’ll be able to wake,” she says, holding it up for Alec to see. The green liquid sloshed gently in the bottle.

He nodded, his grip on Magnus’s hand never weakening. “Okay. Okay, good.”

And with his approval (because nobody was getting close to Magnus without it), Cat angled her friend’s head up poured the potion down his throat.

She snapped the empty bottle away, and Alec watched Magnus, concern written on his face. Cat hesitated, but she had to let Alec know.

“Alec,” she said gently, and the Shadowhunter looked up at her. She scanned his face. The dark circles under his eyes from the first time they’d met had grown darker. His frown was deep and his hair was simply a mess. Cat bit her lip and nodded toward the doorway. She grabbed the nearby clipboard to write down the potion she’d just given Magnus and moved to the corner of the room. She could hear Alec whisper something to Magnus before following her.

“What is it?” Alec asked. His arms were folded over his chest defensively, and he kept glancing over his shoulder at the sleeping body in the bed. Magnus still didn’t move.

“Alec...” Cat paused. How was she supposed to word this? It would break Magnus, and therefore, break Alec. “Lorenzo’s power, the magic he gave Magnus, it’s fighting with him.” Alec stared at her. He ran his thumb along his bottom lip in thought. “His body — his soul — isn’t accepting it. If he uses it again, even for something small, it could kill him.”

All she got in response was a slow blink.

“Alec?”

That seemed to jar him out of his thoughts. He bowed his head and scratched his neck. “Yeah.”

“We have to... he needs to give the magic back.”

Alec nodded, eyeing her. “Can you draw it out of him?” His voice was quiet, softer than she'd ever heard it. He likely already knew the answer.

Cat shook her head. It hurt her heart, not being able to heal Magnus completely. And it hurt her heart knowing that Magnus would probably hate her for this forever, even if it would save his life. “I wish I could. But it has to be Lorenzo.”

Alec responded with another nod. A sigh. Cat watched him, her brows furrowing. She knew that Alec hated Lorenzo — hell, she did too — for taking Magnus’s spot as the High Warlock, and, generally, for treating Magnus like shit. “Okay.”

“Okay?”  
  
“I’ll go talk to him.” Alec glanced at Magnus, rolled his shoulders, and nodded once before turning on his heel and hurrying out of the room. 

And Magnus couldn’t see it. Cat knew that he couldn’t see how his own eyes lit up when Alec called him. How he acted differently when he was with Alec than he had when he was with Casanova or Camille or even Dot. That he was more in love than he had ever been. And Magnus couldn’t see it, but was so clear to Cat, his friend of 300 years, that this Nephilim that he loved would do _anything_ for him.

So while Alec was gone, Cat sat in his chair. She grabbed Magnus’s hand, nail polish missing and rings gone, and folded it into hers. And she told him.


End file.
